March closed below lows of prior two sessions. U.S. all-cotton ginning totaled 17.3 million RB as of Jan. 15, up 17% from a year ago and roughly 85% of the estimated production.
Cotton futures tumbled to triple-digit current-crop closing losses Tuesday, with spot March taking the biggest hit and finishing below lows of the previous two sessions.
March lost 115 points to settle at 82.26 cents, near the low of its 167-point range from up 27 points at 83.68 cents to down 140 points at 82.01 cents. It had posted higher lows for 10 consecutive sessions.
May dropped 104 points to close at 82.74 cents and July finished down 100 points at 83.19 cents. The other contracts settled down 37 to 56 points, with December down 42 points at 75.33 cents after touching a new contract high at 76 cents.
Some rollover selling of the March-May switch may have begun by some of the smaller hedge funds, a cotton analyst commented after the close Monday, noting that the end of the month now is in sight along with the index fund and hedge fund rolling from the spot contract.
On the other side, mills will roll or price on-call contracts prior to first notice day for March, now 21 trading sessions ahead on Feb. 22.
Steep import tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on washing machines and solar panels prompted some talk of potential retaliation, though Trump said they would not result in a trade war.
Volume increased to an estimated 43,300 lots from 32,248 lots the prior session when spreads accounted for 17,355 lots or 54%, EFP 141 lots and EFS one lot. Options volume declined to 4,573 lots (1,780 calls and 2,793 puts) from 14,550 lots (8,945 calls and 5,605 puts).
U.S. all-cotton ginning of the 2017 crop totaled 17.43 million running bales as of Jan. 15, up 17% from 14.84 million RB ginned through the corresponding period last season and roughly 85% of the estimated production, figures reported by USDA indicated.
The report from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service was delayed a day by the government shutdown. Ginning lagged year-ago progress when gins had processed about 89% of the final 2016 output.
There have been reports that ginning of an exceptional crop in Oklahoma may continue into May and possibly into June. That would extend into the planting of new-crop cotton. Ginning there totaled 385,400 RB, up from 359,200 RB a year earlier.
All-cotton ginning in Texas of 7.419 million RB was up 13% from 6.59 million processed a year ago and approximately 80% of USDA’s record high crop forecast. Ginning of Texas cotton made up 43% of the U.S. total.
Upland ginning of 16.866 million RB was up 17% from 14.38 million a year ago, 49% from 11.337 million in 2015 and 16% from 14.501 million in 2014. Ginning of Pima or extra-long staple cotton of 564,300 RB was up 23% from 459,550 RB last year.
By regions, upland ginning (may not add to total to avoid disclosure of individual gins and rounding) and comparisons with a year ago included 4.243 million RB in the Southeast, up from 3.58 million; 4.189 million in Delta, up from 3.248 million; 7.805 million in the Southwest, up from 6.976 million; and 538,150 RB in the West, down from 575,850.
Futures open interest grew 540 lots to a new all-time high 313,063 on Monday, with March’s down 1,431 lots to 168,450 and May’s up 1,408 lots to 72,206. Certified stocks were unchanged at 48,451 bales.
Source: Agfax